Layered network

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method for connecting to a layered network. The layered network comprises a plurality of nodes arranged in an ordered set of layers. The ordered set of layers comprises, in order, a core layer comprising a set of core nodes, a second layer comprising a set of second nodes, and one or more outer layers each comprising a respective set of outer nodes. Each core node is connected to at least one other core node. The method is performed by a connecting node and comprises connecting to the network according to a connection protocol. The connection protocol requires that each node must connect to at least one node of a preceding layer, and each outer node must also connect to at least one core node.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the U.S. National Stage of International Application No. PCT/162021/050367 filed on Jan. 19, 2021, which claims the benefit of United Kingdom Patent Application No. 2002273.7, filed on Feb. 19, 2020, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a method of connecting a layered network according to a connection protocol.

BACKGROUND

A blockchain refers to a form of distributed data structure, wherein a duplicate copy of the blockchain is maintained at each of a plurality of nodes in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. The blockchain comprises a chain of blocks of data, wherein each block comprises one or more transactions. Each transaction may point back to a preceding transaction in a sequence which may span one or more blocks. Transactions can be submitted to the network to be included in new blocks. New blocks are created by a process known as “mining”, which involves each of a plurality of mining nodes competing to perform “proof-of-work”, i.e. solving a cryptographic puzzle based on a pool of the pending transactions waiting to be included in blocks.

Each node in the network can have any one, two or all of three roles: forwarding, mining and storage. Forwarding nodes propagate transactions throughout the nodes of the network. Mining nodes perform the mining of transactions into blocks. Storage nodes each store their own copy of the mined blocks of the blockchain. In order to have a transaction recorded in the blockchain, a party sends the transaction to one of the nodes of the network to be propagated. Mining nodes which receive the transaction may race to mine the transaction into a new block. Each node is configured to respect the same node protocol, which will include one or more conditions for a transaction to be valid. Invalid transactions will not be propagated nor mined into blocks. Assuming the transaction is validated and thereby accepted onto the blockchain, then the transaction (including any user data) will thus remain stored at each of the nodes in the P2P network as an immutable public record.

The miner who successfully solved the proof-of-work puzzle to create the latest block is typically rewarded with a new transaction called a “generation transaction” which generates a new amount of the digital asset. The proof-of work incentivises miners not to cheat the system by including double-spending transactions in their blocks, since it requires a large amount of compute resource to mine a block, and a block that includes an attempt to double spend is likely not be accepted by other nodes.

In an “output-based” model (sometimes referred to as a UTXO-based model), the data structure of a given transaction comprises one or more inputs and one or more outputs. Any spendable output comprises an element specifying an amount of the digital asset, sometimes referred to as a UTXO (“unspent transaction output”). The output may further comprise a locking script specifying a condition for redeeming the output. Each input comprises a pointer to such an output in a preceding transaction, and may further comprise an unlocking script for unlocking the locking script of the pointed-to output. So consider a pair of transactions, call them a first and a second transaction (or “target” transaction). The first transaction comprises at least one output specifying an amount of the digital asset, and comprising a locking script defining one or more conditions of unlocking the output. The second, target transaction comprises at least one input, comprising a pointer to the output of the first transaction, and an unlocking script for unlocking the output of the first transaction.

In such a model, when the second, target transaction is sent to the P2P network to be propagated and recorded in the blockchain, one of the criteria for validity applied at each node will be that the unlocking script meets all of the one or more conditions defined in the locking script of the first transaction. Another will be that the output of the first transaction has not already been redeemed by another, earlier valid transaction. Any node that finds the target transaction invalid according to any of these conditions will not propagate it nor include it for mining into a block to be recorded in the blockchain.

Conventionally the transactions in the blockchain are used to convey a digital asset, i.e. a number of digital tokens. However, a blockchain can also be exploited in order to superimpose additional functionality on top of the blockchain. For instance, blockchain protocols may allow for storage of additional user data in an output of a transaction. Modern blockchains are increasing the maximum data capacity that can be stored within a single transaction, enabling more complex data to be incorporated. For instance this may be used to store an electronic document in the blockchain, or even audio or video data.

SUMMARY

The concept of a Mandala networks was introduced by C. Sampaio Filho, A. Moreira, R. Andrade, et al, “Mandala Networks: ultra-small-world and highly sparse graphs.” Sci Rep 5, 9082 (2015).

A Mandala network is a network that is built up in layers (or shells or generations) where the first layer forms a complete graph and each node in the same layer has the same degree. Here, the first layer forms a complete graph in that each node in the first layer is connected to every other node in the first layer. The “degree” of a layer is a term for the number of nodes of the same layer that a given node is connected to. For example, if a layer has a degree of 2, each node in that layer is connected to two other nodes of the same layer.

The choice of three parameters (n₁, b, λ) specify a type of Mandala network. The parameter n₁ represents the number of nodes in the first layer, the parameter b represents the number of nodes connected to each node in the i^(th) layer to form the (i+1)^(th) layer, and A is a scale factor that determines the degree of nodes in each shell. A node in the i^(th) layer is referred to as an “ancestor” of the node(s) in the (i+1)^(th) layer that are connected to that node. By construction, each node in each layer is directly connected to all of their ancestral nodes up to the first layer.

If g is the total number of layer in the Mandala network, the degree of a node in layer i is denoted k_(ig) and is given by

k _(ig) =bλ ^(g−i)+(i−1)

Type A Mandala networks have parameters (n₁, b, λ)=(3,2,2) in which case the above formula reduces to k_(ig) ^(A)=2^(g−i+1)+(i−1). Type B Mandala networks have parameters (n₁, b, λ)=(4,4,2). These networks have an intra-layer degree of two with a ring topology. A property of type A networks is that each node in layer two (i.e. the second layer) and above is connected to precisely one node in layer one (i.e. the first or centre layer).

By definition, any type of Mandala network is constructed with just three parameters (n₁, b, λ). For this reason they are only able to describe a very specific and restrictive set of networks. It is recognised that it would be desirable to establish a layered network of nodes whereby nodes that connect to the network do so according to a predefined ruleset.

According to one aspect disclosed herein, there is provided a computer-implemented method for connecting to a layered network. The layered network comprises a plurality of nodes arranged in an ordered set of layers. The ordered set of layers comprises, in order, a core layer comprising a set of core nodes, a second layer comprising a set of second nodes, and one or more outer layers each comprising a respective set of outer nodes. Each core node is connected to at least one other core node. The method is performed by a connecting node and comprises connecting to the network according to a connection protocol. The connection protocol requires that each node must connect to at least one node of a preceding layer, and each outer node must also connect to at least one core node.

The present invention provides for a method of connecting to a layered network (LN) according a connection protocol. The connection protocol allows for layered networks to be formed that are less restrictive than a Mandala network, whilst still retaining certain beneficial aspects of a Mandala network.

In embodiments the core nodes comprise nodes of a blockchain network. In embodiments each of the core nodes may be a mining node and/or storage node (e.g. full-copy node) of the blockchain network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To assist understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure and to show how such embodiments may be put into effect, reference is made, by way of example only, to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a system for implementing a blockchain,

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates some examples of transactions which may be recorded in a blockchain,

FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of an example of a layered network,

FIG. 4 is another schematic representation of an example of a layered network,

FIG. 5 is another schematic representation of an example of a layered network, and

FIG. 6 is another schematic representation of an example of a layered network.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Example System Overview

FIG. 1 shows an example system 100 for implementing a blockchain 150. The system 100 comprises a packet-switched network 101, typically a wide-area internetwork such as the Internet. The packet-switched network 101 comprises a plurality of nodes 104 arranged to form a peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network 106 within the packet-switched network 101. Each node 104 of the blockchain network 106 comprises computer equipment of a peers, with different ones of the nodes 104 belonging to different peers. Each node 104 comprises processing apparatus comprising one or more processors, e.g. one or more central processing units (CPUs), accelerator processors, application specific processors and/or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Each node also comprises memory, i.e. computer-readable storage in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable medium or media. The memory may comprise one or more memory units employing one or more memory media, e.g. a magnetic medium such as a hard disk; an electronic medium such as a solid-state drive (SSD), flash memory or EEPROM; and/or an optical medium such as an optical disk drive.

The blockchain 150 comprises a chain of blocks of data 151, wherein a respective copy of the blockchain 150 is maintained at each of a plurality of nodes in the P2P network 160. Each block 151 in the chain comprises one or more transactions 152, wherein a transaction in this context refers to a kind of data structure. The nature of the data structure will depend on the type of transaction protocol used as part of a transaction model or scheme. A given blockchain will typically use one particular transaction protocol throughout. In one common type of transaction protocol, the data structure of each transaction 152 comprises at least one input and at least one output. Each output specifies an amount representing a quantity of a digital asset belonging to a user 103 to whom the output is cryptographically locked (requiring a signature of that user in order to be unlocked and thereby redeemed or spent). Each input points back to the output of a preceding transaction 152, thereby linking the transactions.

At least some of the nodes 104 take on the role of forwarding nodes 104F which forward and thereby propagate transactions 152. At least some of the nodes 104 take on the role of miners 104M which mine blocks 151. At least some of the nodes 104 take on the role of storage nodes 104S (sometimes also called “full-copy” nodes), each of which stores a respective copy of the same blockchain 150 in their respective memory. Each miner node 104M also maintains a pool 154 of transactions 152 waiting to be mined into blocks 151. A given node 104 may be a forwarding node 104, miner 104M, storage node 104S or any combination of two or all of these.

In a given present transaction 152 j, the (or each) input comprises a pointer referencing the output of a preceding transaction 152 i in the sequence of transactions, specifying that this output is to be redeemed or “spent” in the present transaction 152 j. In general, the preceding transaction could be any transaction in the pool 154 or any block 151. The preceding transaction 152 i need not necessarily exist at the time the present transaction 152 j is created or even sent to the network 106, though the preceding transaction 152 i will need to exist and be validated in order for the present transaction to be valid. Hence “preceding” herein refers to a predecessor in a logical sequence linked by pointers, not necessarily the time of creation or sending in a temporal sequence, and hence it does not necessarily exclude that the transactions 152 i, 152 j be created or sent out-of-order (see discussion below on orphan transactions). The preceding transaction 152 i could equally be called the antecedent or predecessor transaction.

The input of the present transaction 152 j also comprises the signature of the user 103 a to whom the output of the preceding transaction 152 i is locked. In turn, the output of the present transaction 152 j can be cryptographically locked to a new user 103 b. The present transaction 152 j can thus transfer the amount defined in the input of the preceding transaction 152 i to the new user 103 b as defined in the output of the present transaction 152 j. In some cases a transaction 152 may have multiple outputs to split the input amount between multiple users (one of whom could be the original user 103 a in order to give change). In some cases a transaction can also have multiple inputs to gather together the amounts from multiple outputs of one or more preceding transactions, and redistribute to one or more outputs of the current transaction.

The above may be referred to as an “output-based” transaction protocol, sometimes also referred to as an unspent transaction output (UTXO) type protocol (where the outputs are referred to as UTXOs). A user's total balance is not defined in any one number stored in the blockchain, and instead the user needs a special “wallet” application 105 to collate the values of all the UTXOs of that user which are scattered throughout many different transactions 152 in the blockchain 151.

An alternative type of transaction protocol may be referred to as an “account-based” protocol, as part of an account-based transaction model. In the account-based case, each transaction does not define the amount to be transferred by referring back to the UTXO of a preceding transaction in a sequence of past transactions, but rather by reference to an absolute account balance. The current state of all accounts is stored by the miners separate to the blockchain and is updated constantly. In such a system, transactions are ordered using a running transaction tally of the account (also called the “position”). This value is signed by the sender as part of their cryptographic signature and is hashed as part of the transaction reference calculation. In addition, an optional data field may also be signed the transaction. This data field may point back to a previous transaction, for example if the previous transaction ID is included in the data field.

In either type of mode, when a user 103 wishes to enact a new transaction 152 j, then he/she sends the new transaction from his/her computer terminal 102 to one of the nodes 104 of the P2P validation network 106 (which nowadays are typically servers or data centres, but could in principle be other user terminals). This node 104 checks whether the transaction is valid according to a node protocol which is applied at each of the nodes 104. The details of the node protocol will correspond to the type of transaction protocol being used in the blockchain 150 in question, together forming the overall transaction model. The node protocol typically requires the node 104 to check that the cryptographic signature in the new transaction 152 j matches the expected signature, which depends on the previous transaction 152 i in an ordered sequence of transactions 152. In an output-based case, this may comprise checking that the cryptographic signature of the user included in the input of the new transaction 152 j matches a condition defined in the output of the preceding transaction 152 i which the new transaction spends, wherein this condition typically comprises at least checking that the cryptographic signature in the input of the new transaction 152 j unlocks the output of the previous transaction 152 i to which the input of the new transaction points. In some transaction protocols the condition may be at least partially defined by a custom script included in the input and/or output. Alternatively it could simply be a fixed by the node protocol alone, or it could be due to a combination of these. Either way, if the new transaction 152 j is valid, the current node forwards it to one or more others of the nodes 104 in the P2P network 106. At least some of these nodes 104 also act as forwarding nodes 104F, applying the same test according to the same node protocol, and so forward the new transaction 152 j on to one or more further nodes 104, and so forth. In this way the new transaction is propagated throughout the network of nodes 104.

In an output-based model, the definition of whether a given output (e.g. UTXO) is spent is whether it has yet been validly redeemed by the input of another, onward transaction 152 j according to the node protocol. Another condition for a transaction to be valid is that the output of the preceding transaction 152 i which it attempts to spend or redeem has not already been spent/redeemed by another valid transaction. Again if not valid, the transaction 152 j will not be propagated or recorded in the blockchain. This guards against double-spending whereby the spender tries to spend the output of the same transaction more than once.

In addition to validation, at least some of the nodes 104M also race to be the first to create blocks of transactions in a process known as mining, which is underpinned by “proof of work”. At a mining node 104M, new transactions are added to a pool of valid transactions that have not yet appeared in a block. The miners then race to assemble a new valid block 151 of transactions 152 from the pool of transactions 154 by attempting to solve a cryptographic puzzle. Typically this comprises searching for a “nonce” value such that when the nonce is concatenated with the pool of transactions 154 and hashed, then the output of the hash meets a predetermined condition. E.g. the predetermined condition may be that the output of the hash has a certain predefined number of leading zeros. A property of a hash function is that it has an unpredictable output with respect to its input. Therefore this search can only be performed by brute force, thus consuming a substantive amount of processing resource at each node 104M that is trying to solve the puzzle.

The first miner node 104M to solve the puzzle announces this to the network 106, providing the solution as proof which can then be easily checked by the other nodes 104 in the network (once given the solution to a hash it is straightforward to check that it causes the output of the hash to meet the condition). The pool of transactions 154 for which the winner solved the puzzle then becomes recorded as a new block 151 in the blockchain 150 by at least some of the nodes 104 acting as storage nodes 104S, based on having checked the winner's announced solution at each such node. A block pointer 155 is also assigned to the new block 151 n pointing back to the previously created block 151 n-1 in the chain. The proof-of-work helps reduce the risk of double spending since it takes a large amount of effort to create a new block 151, and as any block containing a double spend is likely to be rejected by other nodes 104, mining nodes 104M are incentivised not to allow double spends to be included in their blocks. Once created, the block 151 cannot be modified since it is recognized and maintained at each of the storing nodes 104S in the P2P network 106 according to the same protocol. The block pointer 155 also imposes a sequential order to the blocks 151. Since the transactions 152 are recorded in the ordered blocks at each storage node 104S in a P2P network 106, this therefore provides an immutable public ledger of the transactions.

The pool 154 is sometimes referred to as a “mempool”. This term herein is not intended to limit to any particular blockchain, protocol or model. It refers to the pool of transactions which a miner has accepted for mining and for which the miner has committed not to accept any other transactions attempting to spend the same output.

Note that different miners 104M racing to solve the puzzle at any given time may be doing so based on different snapshots of the unmined transaction pool 154 at any given time, depending on when they started searching for a solution. Whoever solves their respective puzzle first defines which transactions 152 are included in the next new block 151 n, and the current pool 154 of unmined transactions is updated. The miners 104M then continue to race to create a block from the newly defined outstanding pool 154, and so forth. A protocol also exists for resolving any “fork” that may arise, which is where two miners 104M solve their puzzle within a very short time of one another such that a conflicting view of the blockchain gets propagated. In short, whichever prong of the fork grows the longest becomes the definitive blockchain 150.

In most blockchains the winning miner 104M is automatically rewarded with a special kind of new transaction which creates a new quantity of the digital asset out of nowhere (as opposed to normal transactions which transfer an amount of the digital asset from one user to another). Hence the winning node is said to have “mined” a quantity of the digital asset. This special type of transaction is sometime referred to as a “generation” transaction. It automatically forms part of the new block 151 n. This reward gives an incentive for the miners 104M to participate in the proof-of-work race. Often a regular (non-generation) transaction 152 will also specify an additional transaction fee in one of its outputs, to further reward the winning miner 104M that created the block 151 n in which that transaction was included.

Due to the computational resource involved in mining, typically at least each of the miner nodes 104M takes the form of a server comprising one or more physical server units, or even whole a data centre. Each forwarding node 104M and/or storage node 104S may also take the form of a server or data centre. However in principle any given node 104 could take the form of a user terminal or a group of user terminals networked together.

The memory of each node 104 stores software configured to run on the processing apparatus of the node 104 in order to perform its respective role or roles and handle transactions 152 in accordance with the node protocol. It will be understood that any action attributed herein to a node 104 may be performed by the software run on the processing apparatus of the respective computer equipment. The node software may be implemented in one or more applications at the application layer, or a lower layer such as the operating system layer or a protocol layer, or any combination of these. Also, the term “blockchain” as used herein is a generic term that refers to the kind of technology in general, and does not limit to any particular proprietary blockchain, protocol or service.

Also connected to the network 101 is the computer equipment 102 of each of a plurality of parties 103 in the role of consuming users. These act as payers and payees in transactions but do not necessarily participate in mining or propagating transactions on behalf of other parties. They do not necessarily run the mining protocol. Two parties 103 and their respective equipment 102 are shown for illustrative purposes: a first party 103 a and his/her respective computer equipment 102 a, and a second party 103 b and his/her respective computer equipment 102 b. It will be understood that many more such parties 103 and their respective computer equipment 102 may be present and participating in the system, but for convenience they are not illustrated. Each party 103 may be an individual or an organization. Purely by way of illustration the first party 103 a is referred to herein as Alice and the second party 103 b is referred to as Bob, but it will be appreciated that this is not limiting and any reference herein to Alice or Bob may be replaced with “first party” and “second “party” respectively.

The computer equipment 102 of each party 103 comprises respective processing apparatus comprising one or more processors, e.g. one or more CPUs, GPUs, other accelerator processors, application specific processors, and/or FPGAs. The computer equipment 102 of each party 103 further comprises memory, i.e. computer-readable storage in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable medium or media. This memory may comprise one or more memory units employing one or more memory media, e.g. a magnetic medium such as hard disk; an electronic medium such as an SSD, flash memory or EEPROM; and/or an optical medium such as an optical disc drive. The memory on the computer equipment 102 of each party 103 stores software comprising a respective instance of at least one client application 105 arranged to run on the processing apparatus. It will be understood that any action attributed herein to a given party 103 may be performed using the software run on the processing apparatus of the respective computer equipment 102. The computer equipment 102 of each party 103 comprises at least one user terminal, e.g. a desktop or laptop computer, a tablet, a smartphone, or a wearable device such as a smartwatch. The computer equipment 102 of a given party 103 may also comprise one or more other networked resources, such as cloud computing resources accessed via the user terminal.

The client application 105 may be initially provided to the computer equipment 102 of any given party 103 on suitable computer-readable storage medium or media, e.g. downloaded from a server, or provided on a removable storage device such as a removable SSD, flash memory key, removable EEPROM, removable magnetic disk drive, magnetic floppy disk or tape, optical disk such as a CD or DVD ROM, or a removable optical drive, etc.

The client application 105 comprises at least a “wallet” function. This has two main functionalities. One of these is to enable the respective user party 103 to create, sign and send transactions 152 to be propagated throughout the network of nodes 104 and thereby included in the blockchain 150. The other is to report back to the respective party the amount of the digital asset that he or she currently owns. In an output-based system, this second functionality comprises collating the amounts defined in the outputs of the various 152 transactions scattered throughout the blockchain 150 that belong to the party in question.

Note: whilst the various client functionality may be described as being integrated into a given client application 105, this is not necessarily limiting and instead any client functionality described herein may instead be implemented in a suite of two or more distinct applications, e.g. interfacing via an API, or one being a plug-in to the other. More generally the client functionality could be implemented at the application layer or a lower layer such as the operating system, or any combination of these. The following will be described in terms of a client application 105 but it will be appreciated that this is not limiting.

The instance of the client application or software 105 on each computer equipment 102 is operatively coupled to at least one of the forwarding nodes 104F of the P2P network 106. This enables the wallet function of the client 105 to send transactions 152 to the network 106. The client 105 is also able to contact one, some or all of the storage nodes 104 in order to query the blockchain 150 for any transactions of which the respective party 103 is the recipient (or indeed inspect other parties' transactions in the blockchain 150, since in embodiments the blockchain 150 is a public facility which provides trust in transactions in part through its public visibility). The wallet function on each computer equipment 102 is configured to formulate and send transactions 152 according to a transaction protocol. Each node 104 runs software configured to validate transactions 152 according to a node protocol, and in the case of the forwarding nodes 104F to forward transactions 152 in order to propagate them throughout the network 106. The transaction protocol and node protocol correspond to one another, and a given transaction protocol goes with a given node protocol, together implementing a given transaction model. The same transaction protocol is used for all transactions 152 in the blockchain 150 (though the transaction protocol may allow different subtypes of transaction within it). The same node protocol is used by all the nodes 104 in the network 106 (though it many handle different subtypes of transaction differently in accordance with the rules defined for that subtype, and also different nodes may take on different roles and hence implement different corresponding aspects of the protocol).

As mentioned, the blockchain 150 comprises a chain of blocks 151, wherein each block 151 comprises a set of one or more transactions 152 that have been created by a proof-of-work process as discussed previously. Each block 151 also comprises a block pointer 155 pointing back to the previously created block 151 in the chain so as to define a sequential order to the blocks 151. The blockchain 150 also comprises a pool of valid transactions 154 waiting to be included in a new block by the proof-of-work process. Each transaction 152 (other than a generation transaction) comprises a pointer back to a previous transaction so as to define an order to sequences of transactions (N.B. sequences of transactions 152 are allowed to branch). The chain of blocks 151 goes all the way back to a genesis block (Gb) 153 which was the first block in the chain. One or more original transactions 152 early on in the chain 150 pointed to the genesis block 153 rather than a preceding transaction.

When a given party 103, say Alice, wishes to send a new transaction 152 j to be included in the blockchain 150, then she formulates the new transaction in accordance with the relevant transaction protocol (using the wallet function in her client application 105). She then sends the transaction 152 from the client application 105 to one of the one or more forwarding nodes 104F to which she is connected. E.g. this could be the forwarding node 104F that is nearest or best connected to Alice's computer 102. When any given node 104 receives a new transaction 152 j, it handles it in accordance with the node protocol and its respective role. This comprises first checking whether the newly received transaction 152 j meets a certain condition for being “valid”, examples of which will be discussed in more detail shortly. In some transaction protocols, the condition for validation may be configurable on a per-transaction basis by scripts included in the transactions 152. Alternatively the condition could simply be a built-in feature of the node protocol, or be defined by a combination of the script and the node protocol.

On condition that the newly received transaction 152 j passes the test for being deemed valid (i.e. on condition that it is “validated”), any storage node 104S that receives the transaction 152 j will add the new validated transaction 152 to the pool 154 in the copy of the blockchain 150 maintained at that node 104S. Further, any forwarding node 104F that receives the transaction 152 j will propagate the validated transaction 152 onward to one or more other nodes 104 in the P2P network 106. Since each forwarding node 104F applies the same protocol, then assuming the transaction 152 j is valid, this means it will soon be propagated throughout the whole P2P network 106.

Once admitted to the pool 154 in the copy of the blockchain 150 maintained at one or more storage nodes 104, then miner nodes 104M will start competing to solve the proof-of-work puzzle on the latest version of the pool 154 including the new transaction 152 (other miners 104M may still be trying to solve the puzzle based on the old view of the pool 154, but whoever gets there first will define where the next new block 151 ends and the new pool 154 starts, and eventually someone will solve the puzzle for a part of the pool 154 which includes Alice's transaction 152 j). Once the proof-of-work has been done for the pool 154 including the new transaction 152 j, it immutably becomes part of one of the blocks 151 in the blockchain 150. Each transaction 152 comprises a pointer back to an earlier transaction, so the order of the transactions is also immutably recorded.

Mining and storage nodes may both perform validation as a function. For mining nodes that function is auxiliary to the hashing and for storage nodes that function may be auxiliary to the storing.

Different nodes 104 may receive different instances of a given transaction first and therefore have conflicting views of which instance is ‘valid’ before one instance is mined into a block 151, at which point all nodes 104 agree that the mined instance is the only valid instance. If a node 104 accepts one instance as valid, and then discovers that a second instance has been recorded in the blockchain 150 then that node 104 must accept this and will discard (i.e. treat as invalid) the unmined instance which it had initially accepted.

UTXO-Based Model

FIG. 2 illustrates an example transaction protocol. This is an example of an UTXO-based protocol. A transaction 152 (abbreviated “Tx”) is the fundamental data structure of the blockchain 150 (each block 151 comprising one or more transactions 152). The following will be described by reference to an output-based or “UTXO” based protocol. However, this not limiting to all possible embodiments.

In a UTXO-based model, each transaction (“Tx”) 152 comprises a data structure comprising one or more inputs 202, and one or more outputs 203. Each output 203 may comprise an unspent transaction output (UTXO), which can be used as the source for the input 202 of another new transaction (if the UTXO has not already been redeemed). The UTXO includes a value specifying an amount of a digital asset. This represents a set number of tokens on the (distributed) ledger. The UTXO may also contain the transaction ID of the transaction from which it came, amongst other information. The transaction data structure may also comprise a header 201, which may comprise an indicator of the size of the input field(s) 202 and output field(s) 203. The header 201 may also include an ID of the transaction. In embodiments the transaction ID is the hash of the transaction data (excluding the transaction ID itself) and stored in the header 201 of the raw transaction 152 submitted to the miners 104M.

Say Alice 103 a wishes to create a transaction 152 j transferring an amount of the digital asset in question to Bob 103 b. In FIG. 2 Alice's new transaction 152 j is labelled “Tx₁”. It takes an amount of the digital asset that is locked to Alice in the output 203 of a preceding transaction 152 i in the sequence, and transfers at least some of this to Bob. The preceding transaction 152 i is labelled “Tx₀” in FIG. 2 . Tx₀ and Tx₁ are just an arbitrary labels. They do not necessarily mean that Tx₀ is the first transaction in the blockchain 151, nor that Tx₁ is the immediate next transaction in the pool 154. Tx₁ could point back to any preceding (i.e. antecedent) transaction that still has an unspent output 203 locked to Alice.

The preceding transaction Tx₀ may already have been validated and included in the blockchain 150 at the time when Alice creates her new transaction Tx₁, or at least by the time she sends it to the network 106. It may already have been included in one of the blocks 151 at that time, or it may be still waiting in the pool 154 in which case it will soon be included in a new block 151. Alternatively Tx₀ and Tx₁ could be created and sent to the network 102 together, or Tx₀ could even be sent after Tx₁ if the node protocol allows for buffering “orphan” transactions. The terms “preceding” and “subsequent” as used herein in the context of the sequence of transactions refer to the order of the transactions in the sequence as defined by the transaction pointers specified in the transactions (which transaction points back to which other transaction, and so forth). They could equally be replaced with “predecessor” and “successor”, or “antecedent” and “descendant”, “parent” and “child”, or such like. It does not necessarily imply an order in which they are created, sent to the network 106, or arrive at any given node 104. Nevertheless, a subsequent transaction (the descendent transaction or “child”) which points to a preceding transaction (the antecedent transaction or “parent”) will not be validated until and unless the parent transaction is validated. A child that arrives at a node 104 before its parent is considered an orphan. It may be discarded or buffered for a certain time to wait for the parent, depending on the node protocol and/or miner behaviour.

One of the one or more outputs 203 of the preceding transaction Tx₀ comprises a particular UTXO, labelled here UTXO₀. Each UTXO comprises a value specifying an amount of the digital asset represented by the UTXO, and a locking script which defines a condition which must be met by an unlocking script in the input 202 of a subsequent transaction in order for the subsequent transaction to be validated, and therefore for the UTXO to be successfully redeemed. Typically the locking script locks the amount to a particular party (the beneficiary of the transaction in which it is included). I.e. the locking script defines an unlocking condition, typically comprising a condition that the unlocking script in the input of the subsequent transaction comprises the cryptographic signature of the party to whom the preceding transaction is locked.

The locking script (aka scriptPubKey) is a piece of code written in the domain specific language recognized by the node protocol. A particular example of such a language is called “Script” (capital S). The locking script specifies what information is required to spend a transaction output 203, for example the requirement of Alice's signature. Unlocking scripts appear in the outputs of transactions. The unlocking script (aka scriptSig) is a piece of code written the domain specific language that provides the information required to satisfy the locking script criteria. For example, it may contain Bob's signature. Unlocking scripts appear in the input 202 of transactions.

So in the example illustrated, UTXO₀ in the output 203 of Tx₀ comprises a locking script [Checksig P_(A)] which requires a signature Sig P_(A) of Alice in order for UTXO₀ to be redeemed (strictly, in order for a subsequent transaction attempting to redeem UTXO₀ to be valid). [Checksig P_(A)] contains the public key P_(A) from a public-private key pair of Alice. The input 202 of Tx₁ comprises a pointer pointing back to Tx₁ (e.g. by means of its transaction ID, TxID₀, which in embodiments is the hash of the whole transaction Tx₀). The input 202 of Tx₁ comprises an index identifying UTXO₀ within Tx₀, to identify it amongst any other possible outputs of Tx₀. The input 202 of Tx₁ further comprises an unlocking script <Sig P_(A)> which comprises a cryptographic signature of Alice, created by Alice applying her private key from the key pair to a predefined portion of data (sometimes called the “message” in cryptography). What data (or “message”) needs to be signed by Alice to provide a valid signature may be defined by the locking script, or by the node protocol, or by a combination of these.

Depending on implementation, the signature required may for example be a conventional ECDSA (elliptic curve digital signature algorithm) signature, DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm) signature or RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) signature, or any other suitable form of cryptographic signature. The challenge for the signature may for example be implemented as a standard pay-to-public key (P2PK) puzzle or P2PK hash (P2PKH) puzzle, or an alternative such as an R-puzzle may instead be implemented as a means to a signature. The present example uses P2PK by way of illustration.

When the new transaction Tx₁ arrives at a node 104, the node applies the node protocol. This comprises running the locking script and unlocking script together to check whether the unlocking script meets the condition defined in the locking script (where this condition may comprise one or more criteria). In embodiments this involves concatenating the two scripts:

<Sig P_(A)> <P_(A)>∥[Checksig P_(A)]

where “∥” represents a concatenation and “< . . . >” means place the data on the stack, and “[ . . . ]” is a function comprised by the unlocking script (in this example a stack-based language). Equivalently the scripts may be run one after the other, with a common stack, rather than concatenating the scripts. Either way, when run together, the scripts use the public key P_(A) of Alice, as included in the locking script in the output of Tx₀, to authenticate that the locking script in the input of Tx₁ contains the signature of Alice signing the expected portion of data. The expected portion of data itself (the “message”) also needs to be included in Tx₀ order to perform this authentication. In embodiments the signed data comprises the whole of Tx₀ (so a separate element does to need to be included specifying the signed portion of data in the clear, as it is already inherently present).

The details of authentication by public-private cryptography will be familiar to a person skilled in the art. Basically, if Alice has signed a message by encrypting it with her private key, then given Alice's public key and the message in the clear (the unencrypted message), another entity such as a node 104 is able to authenticate that the encrypted version of the message must have been signed by Alice. Signing typically comprises hashing the message, signing the hash, and tagging this onto the clear version of the message as a signature, thus enabling any holder of the public key to authenticate the signature. Note therefore that any reference herein to signing a particular piece of data or part of a transaction, or such like, can in embodiments mean signing a hash of that piece of data or part of the transaction.

A hash referred to anywhere herein may refer for example be implemented by a SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm) hash function, or HMAC (hash-based message authentication code) hash function, or any other suitable form of cryptographic hash function known in the art.

If the unlocking script in Tx₁ meets the one or more conditions specified in the locking script of Tx₀ (so in the example shown, if Alice's signature is provided in Tx₁ and authenticated), then the node 104 deems Tx₁ valid. If it is a mining node 104M, this means it will add it to the pool of transactions 154 awaiting proof-of-work. If it is a forwarding node 104F, it will forward the transaction Tx₁ to one or more other nodes 104 in the network 106, so that it will be propagated throughout the network. Once Tx₁ has been validated and included in the blockchain 150, this defines UTXO₀ from Tx₀ as spent. Note that Tx₁ can only be valid if it spends an unspent transaction output 203. If it attempts to spend an output that has already been spent by another transaction 152, then Tx₁ will be invalid even if all the other conditions are met. Hence the node 104 also needs to check whether the referenced UTXO in the preceding transaction Tx₀ is already spent (has already formed a valid input to another valid transaction). This is one reason why it is important for the blockchain 150 to impose a defined order on the transactions 152. In practice a given node 104 may maintain a separate database marking which UTXOs 203 in which transactions 152 have been spent, but ultimately what defines whether a UTXO has been spent is whether it has already formed a valid input to another valid transaction in the blockchain 150.

If the total amount specified in all the outputs 203 of a given transaction 152 is greater than the total amount pointed to by all its inputs 202, this is another basis for invalidity in most transaction models. Therefore such transactions will not be propagated nor mined into blocks 151.

Note that in UTXO-based transaction models, a given UTXO needs to be spent as a whole. It cannot “leave behind” a fraction of the amount defined in the UTXO as spent while another fraction is spent. However the amount from the UTXO can be split between multiple outputs of the next transaction. E.g. the amount defined in UTXO₀ in Tx₀ can be split between multiple UTXOs in Tx₁. Hence if Alice does not want to give Bob all of the amount defined in UTXO₀, she can use the remainder to give herself change in a second output of Tx₁, or pay another party.

In practice Alice will also usually need to include a fee for the winning miner, because nowadays the reward of the generation transaction alone is not typically sufficient to motivate mining. If Alice does not include a fee for the miner, Tx₀ will likely be rejected by the miner nodes 104M, and hence although technically valid, it will still not be propagated and included in the blockchain 150 (the miner protocol does not force miners 104M to accept transactions 152 if they don't want). In some protocols, the mining fee does not require its own separate output 203 (i.e. does not need a separate UTXO). Instead any difference between the total amount pointed to by the input(s) 202 and the total amount of specified in the output(s) 203 of a given transaction 152 is automatically given to the winning miner 104. E.g. say a pointer to UTXO₀ is the only input to Tx₁, and Tx₁ has only one output UTXO₁. If the amount of the digital asset specified in UTXO₀ is greater than the amount specified in UTXO₁, then the difference automatically goes to the winning miner 104M. Alternatively or additionally however, it is not necessarily excluded that a miner fee could be specified explicitly in its own one of the UTXOs 203 of the transaction 152.

Alice and Bob's digital assets consist of the unspent UTXOs locked to them in any transactions 152 anywhere in the blockchain 150. Hence typically, the assets of a given party 103 are scattered throughout the UTXOs of various transactions 152 throughout the blockchain 150. There is no one number stored anywhere in the blockchain 150 that defines the total balance of a given party 103. It is the role of the wallet function in the client application 105 to collate together the values of all the various UTXOs which are locked to the respective party and have not yet been spent in another onward transaction. It can do this by querying the copy of the blockchain 150 as stored at any of the storage nodes 104S, e.g. the storage node 104S that is closest or best connected to the respective party's computer equipment 102.

Note that the script code is often represented schematically (i.e. not the exact language). For example, one may write [Checksig P_(A)] to mean [Checksig P_(A)]=OP_DUP OP_HASH160<H(P_(A))>OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG. “OP_ . . . ” refers to a particular opcode of the Script language. OP_CHECKSIG (also called “Checksig”) is a Script opcode that takes two inputs (signature and public key) and verifies the signature's validity using the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). At runtime, any occurrences of signature (‘sig’) are removed from the script but additional requirements, such as a hash puzzle, remain in the transaction verified by the ‘sig’ input. As another example, OP_RETURN is an opcode of the Script language for creating an unspendable output of a transaction that can store metadata within the transaction, and thereby record the metadata immutably in the blockchain 150. E.g. the metadata could comprise a document which it is desired to store in the blockchain.

The signature P_(A) is a digital signature. In embodiments this is based on the ECDSA using the elliptic curve secp256k1. A digital signature signs a particular piece of data. In embodiments, for a given transaction the signature will sign part of the transaction input, and all or part of the transaction output. The particular parts of the outputs it signs depends on the SIGHASH flag. The SIGHASH flag is a 4-byte code included at the end of a signature to select which outputs are signed (and thus fixed at the time of signing).

The locking script is sometimes called “scriptPubKey” referring to the fact that it comprises the public key of the party to whom the respective transaction is locked. The unlocking script is sometimes called “scriptSig” referring to the fact that it supplies the corresponding signature. However, more generally it is not essential in all applications of a blockchain 150 that the condition for a UTXO to be redeemed comprises authenticating a signature. More generally the scripting language could be used to define any one or more conditions. Hence the more general terms “locking script” and “unlocking script” may be preferred.

Layered Network

Layered Network Structure

A layered network is an overlay network layered on top of a communication channel. For instance, the communication channel may be an underlying infrastructure network such as a personal area network, a local area network (e.g. an inter-company P2P network) or a wide area network such as the internet. In other examples, the layered network may be a network of nodes connected via wired connections. In yet other examples, the connections may be wireless connections, e.g. Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connections. In some examples, some or all of the above example connections may be used to form the layered network.

Some or all of the nodes are the network are configured to connect to (i.e. join or re-join) the layered network according a connection protocol. The connection protocol may vary according to the particular layer of the network in which the connecting node is connecting to (i.e. attempting to join or re-join). Before the connection protocol is described in detail, a series of example layered networks that may be created, or enforced, by the connection protocol will be described. However it will be appreciated that these are only illustrative examples, and in general any layered network that obeys the connection protocol may be created.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic representation of an example of a layered network (LN) 300. In general, a LN includes a core network (or core layer) made up of core nodes 301, and a series of layers (or shells). The core layer is also referred to as the first layer of the LN. The series of layers extend outward of the core layer, in order, from a second layer made up of second nodes 302, to one or more outer layers. Each outer layer is made up of a set of outer nodes 303. Only one outer layer is shown in FIG. 3 but it will be appreciated that a LN may comprise any number of outer layers. As a particular example, FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a LN 500 comprising five layers, and FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a LN 600 comprising four layers.

The example LN 300 of FIG. 3 comprises five core nodes 301, six second nodes 302 and eight outer nodes 303. In some LNs 300, the number of nodes may increase with each layer, i.e. the core layer is made up of the least number of nodes and the outermost layer is made up of the greatest number of nodes. In other examples, one or more of the layers between the core layer and outermost layer may be made up of the greatest number of nodes. In this example, the core layer is the innermost layer of the LN 300, the second layer is an intermediate layer and the outer layer, being the only outer layer, is the outermost layer.

The core layer (a network within the LN) in this example forms a complete graph, i.e. each core node 301 is connected to each other core node 301. For a core layer of five core nodes 301, in the example given the core layer requires ten distinct core connections (i.e. a connection between two core nodes). In other examples (e.g. FIG. 4 ), the core layer may not be a complete graph. The core layer may form a “near-complete graph”. In a near-complete graph, at least one core node 301 is not connected to at least one other core node 301. It may be that only one core connection is missing. In a particular example of a near-complete graph, each core node 301 may be connected to one or more but not all of the other core nodes 301.

The second layer comprises second nodes 302. Note that the term “second node” is used only as a label for nodes 302 that are situated, by construction, in the second layer of the LN 300. Each second node 302 is connected to at least one core node 301. In some examples, each second node 302 may be connected to only one core node 301. Alternatively, some or all of the second nodes 302 may be connected to more than one core node 301. For instance, some or all of the second nodes 302 may connect to each and every one of the core nodes 301. In the example LN 300 of FIG. 3 , each core node 301 is connected to two second nodes 302. However, in this example, some second nodes 302 (those shown as striped circles) are connected to one core node 301, whilst some second nodes 302 (those shown as white circles, and those shown as shaded circles) are connected to two core nodes 301. Second nodes 302 (and outer nodes 303 of outer layers) that are connected to the same core nodes 301 are referred to as a “community”. For instance, each white node together forms one community, each striped node together forms a community, and each shaded node together forms yet another community. Connections between the second nodes 302 and the core nodes 301 are referred to as “ancestor connections” and are shown as wide dotted lines.

In the example of FIG. 3 , each second node 302 is connected to two other second nodes 302. In some examples, some or all of the second nodes 302 may not form connections with other second nodes, e.g. some second nodes 302 may be connected to other second nodes 302 whilst some second nodes may be connected to other second nodes 302. These “intra-layer” connections are shown as solid lines between nodes in FIG. 3 .

The outer layer of FIG. 3 comprises outer nodes 303. Note that the term “outer” in “outer layer” here does not in itself necessarily limit to the outermost layer of the LN network as a whole, though that is one possibility. Each outer node 303 is connected to at least one second node 302. In some examples, each outer node 303 may be connected to only one second node 302. Alternatively, some or all of the outer nodes 303 may be connected to more than one second node 302. For instance, some or all of the outer nodes 303 may connect to each and every one of the second nodes 301. In the example LN 300 of FIG. 3 , each outer node 303 is connected to two second nodes 302. Some second nodes 302 (i.e. the striped nodes) are connected to two outer nodes 303, and some second nodes 302 (i.e. the white nodes and shaded nodes) are connected to three outer nodes 303.

In the example of FIG. 3 , each outer node 303 is connected to two other outer nodes 303 of the same layer. In some examples, some or all of the outer nodes 303 may not form any connections with other outer nodes 303 of the same layer. Some or all of the outer nodes 303 may form at least one connection with another outer node 303 of the same layer.

As well as being connected to at least one second node 302, each outer node 303 is also connected to at least one core node 301. A connection between an outer node 303 and a core node 301 is referred to as a “core ancestor connection” and is shown as a thin dotted lines. Each outer node 303 may be connected to each of the core nodes 301 that their ancestral second node(s) 302 is/are connected to. As shown in FIG. 3 , each outer node 303 may be connected to each of the core nodes 301 that their ancestral second node(s) 302 is/are connected to, and to no other core nodes 301. In this case, each outer node 303 belongs to a single community.

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic representation of another example of a LN 400. Like the LN 300 of FIG. 3 , the example LN 400 comprises a core layer, a second layer and an outer layer. These example LNs 300, 400 share the same number of nodes (i.e. five core nodes 301, six second nodes 302 and eight outer nodes 303), but include a different number of connections. For instance, in this example the core layer is not a complete graph as some connections between core nodes 301 are not present. Another difference is that two communities (white nodes and shaded nodes) comprise a single core node 301, whilst another community (shaded nodes) comprises three core nodes 301. Yet another difference is that the degree of nodes in the outer shell of LN 400 is now one, unlike the degree of nodes in the outer shell of LN 300 which is two. That is, in this example LN 400, each outer node 303 is connected to a single other outer node 303. Therefore the nodes of different layers have a different degree.

FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic representation of another example of a LN 500. In this example, only some core nodes 301 are connected to second nodes and outer nodes 303.

That is, in this example some core nodes 301 only form connections with other core nodes 301. Therefore in this example the LN 500 comprises a single community (shaded nodes). The LN 500 of his example comprises five layers: a core layer, a second layer, and three outer layers. The core layer is made up of five core nodes 301 that form a near-complete graph. In this example of a near-complete graph, only a single core connection is missing. The second layer is made up of a single second node 302 which is connected to two core nodes 301. The second layer is made up of a single second node 302 which is connected to two core nodes 301. The third layer is made up of a single outer node 303 which is connected to the second node 302 via an ancestor connection. The outer node 303 of the third layer is also connected to the two core nodes 301 that the second node 302 is connected to. The outer node 303 is connected to the two core nodes 301 via respective core ancestor connections. The fourth layer is also made up of a single outer node 304. The outer node 304 of the fourth layer is connected to the outer node 303 of the third layer, via an ancestor connection, and to the second node 302, via an ancestor connection. The outer node 304 of the fourth layer is also connected to the two core nodes 301 that the second node 302 and the outer node 303 of the third layer are connected to. The outer node 304 is connected to the two core nodes 301 via respective core ancestor connections. Finally, the fifth layer is made up of two outer nodes 305. The two outer nodes 305 of the fifth layer are connected to the outer node 304 of the fourth layer, and to the outer node 303 of the third layer, and to the second node 302, wherein each connection is an ancestor connection. The two outer nodes 305 are also connected to the two core nodes 301 via core ancestor connections. In this example LN 500, the node of the second layer and the nodes of the outer layers are not connected to any other nodes of the same layer.

FIG. 6 illustrates a schematic representation of another example of a LN 600. This LN comprises two communities of nodes, as illustrated by the white nodes and the black nodes. In this example the core layer forms a complete graph (i.e. network of nodes). Each community comprises a distinct set of three core nodes 301. This example LN 600 comprises four layers (a core layer, a second layer and two outer layers). Each node of an outer layer is connected to one node in a preceding layer. Like the example LN 500 of FIG. 5 , the nodes of the second layer and the nodes of the outer layers are not connected to any other nodes of the same layer.

In some embodiments, the LN 300, 400, 500, 600 (denoted by “300” from now on for brevity) may be a “blockchain layered network (BLN)”. The term BLN is defined herein as a layered network that comprises a blockchain network, or at least part of a blockchain network, e.g. the blockchain network 106 described with reference to FIG. 1 .

BLNs are inspired by Mandala networks and share some similar features but are designed to allow more flexible and desirable connectivity structures, e.g. for service and user networks that utilize the blockchain network 106.

A BLN 300 may comprises at least part of a blockchain network 106 at its core. In general, the nodes of the layered network are overlaid on an underlying infrastructure network such as the internet 101. Some or all of the core nodes are nodes 104 of the blockchain network 106. They may comprise mining nodes 104M, storage nodes 104S, or a combination thereof. In embodiments each of the core nodes is a mining node 104M and/or storage node 104S (e.g. full copy node).

Each of the outer nodes 303 (or each of the outer nodes of the outermost layer) may be an end-user node, comprising the computer equipment of a user. This could be an individual user or an organization such as a company, academic institution, or government institution, etc. Hence each outer node 303 may comprise one or more user terminals and/or a server comprising one or more server units at one or more sites. Each outer node 303 comprises memory comprising one or more memory units, and processing apparatus comprising one or more processing units. These may for example take any of the forms of memory medium and/processor as those discussed previously in relation to other network elements or user equipment. The memory stores client software arranged to run on the processing apparatus, wherein the client software is configured so as when run to operate the node as a client of a protocol that obeys the connection protocol in accordance with any of the following embodiments or similar. Optionally, one or more of the end-user nodes may comprise the user equipment 103 of a user 102 of the blockchain network 106, and the client software may comprise a blockchain wallet application 105 or the like.

Each second node 302 may take the form of a server comprising one or more physical server units. Each such node comprises memory comprising one or more memory units and processing apparatus comprising one or more processing units. These may for example take any of the forms of memory medium and/processor as those discussed previously in relation to other network elements. The memory stores software arranged to run on the processing apparatus of the second node 302. This software is configured so as when run to obey the connection protocol in accordance with any of the following embodiments or similar. In some embodiments, the software is configured so as when run to provide a service that operates in accordance with any of the embodiments described below or similar.

In some examples, some or all of the second nodes 302 may operate a smart contract service. The smart contract service is configured to perform a predefined operation in response to, and based on, a blockchain transaction transmitted to the smart contract service by one of the other nodes of the LN 300, e.g. by an outer node 303. For instance, the smart contract may transmit a blockchain transaction to a core node 301 in response to receiving a particular blockchain transaction from an outer node 303.

In other examples, some or all of the second nodes 302 may operate, amongst them, a distributed database. That is, each second node 302 that operates the distributed database is configured to store data received from another node of the LN 300, e.g. an outer node 303. The second node 302 that receives and stores data may be configured to propagate the data to other second nodes 302 that are also operating the distributed database.

The nodes 301, 302, 303 are configured to form connections between one another at the overlay network level. That is, the nodes 301, 302, 303 of the layered network are configured to obey an overlay network protocol which specifies what connections they can and cannot form with other nodes 301, 302, 303 of the layered network. Hence, although all the nodes may be (but not necessarily) physically capable of connecting to one another via the underlying infrastructure (e.g. the internet), when they are participating as nodes 301, 302, 303 of the layered network, operating in accordance with the relevant overlay network protocol of the layered network 300, then the connections between such nodes 301, 302, 303 may be more limited. A connection between two nodes 301, 302, 303 of the layered network 300 means those nodes can communicate directly, which in this context means without having to perform a hop via another node 301, 302, 303 of the layered network 300. In the context of an overlay network such as the layered network, a “connection” means a connection (i.e. edge) at the level of the layered network 300 (i.e. the level of the overlay network protocol of the layered network).

In embodiments where the LN 300 is a BLN, some or all of the second nodes 302 may be configured to transmit blockchain transactions to the core nodes 301 that those second nodes 302 are connected to. In some examples, a second node 302 may generate a blockchain transaction before transmitting it to the core node(s) 301. In other examples, a second node 302 may forward the blockchain transaction to the core node(s) 301. For instance, the second node 302 may receive he blockchain transaction from an outer node 303, and then send the received blockchain transaction to the core node(s) 301. Similarly, a given second node 302 (i.e. some or all of the second nodes) may be configured to obtain blockchain transactions from the core node(s) 301 and/or outer nodes 303 that are connected to a given second node 302.

Additionally or alternatively, some or all of the outer nodes 303 may be configured to transmit blockchain transactions to the core node(s) 301 that they are connected to. The outer nodes 303 may also be configured to transmit blockchain transactions to the second node(s) 302 that they are connected to. In some examples, an outer node 303 may transmit a blockchain transaction to a second node 302 and to a core node 301.

Some or all of the outer nodes 303 may be configured to transmit a blockchain transaction to other outer nodes 303, e.g. outer nodes in the same layer, or outer nodes of the previous layer or the next layer in the ordered set of layers.

In embodiments where the core nodes 301 of the BLN 300 each perform the role of a blockchain node 104, some or all of the second nodes 302 and/or outer nodes 303 may be configured to request confirmation that a given transaction has been accepted in the pool of transactions of the mining node 104M that a given second node 302 or outer node 303 is connected to. The pool 154 (sometimes referred to as a mempool) comprises transactions that have been validated according to a set of consensus rules of the blockchain network 106. If a transaction (e.g. a “first transaction”) is included in the pool 154, a mining node 104M will not accept another transaction (e.g. a “second transaction”) that attempts to double spend an output referenced by an input of the first transaction. Therefore second nodes 302 and/or outer nodes 303 can query a core node 301 to check that a transaction (e.g. a transaction submitted by the node 302, 303 to the blockchain network 106) has been accepted, or check whether a transaction (e.g. a transaction received from another node of the BLN 300) is a double spend attempt. The core nodes 301 are configured to transmit the reply to the request to the requesting node 302, 303.

Additionally or alternatively, the second nodes 302 and/or the third nodes 303 may be configured to transmit a request to a core node 301 for a Merkle proof of a transaction that has been mined in a block 151 of the blockchain 150. Merkle proofs will be familiar to the skilled person. A Merkle proof is a sequence of hashes which trace back to the Merkle root. To verify whether a transaction has been mined in a block 151, a node 302, 303 takes the hash of the transaction, concatenates it with a first hash in the sequence of hashes of the Merkle proof (i.e. a hash partner at the same level of the Merkle tree as the hash of the transaction), and hashes the result. This process of concatenation and hashing is repeated until all of the hashes in the Merkle proof have been utilized. If the resulting hash is identical to the Merkle root, the transaction must be included in the Merkle tree, and therefore the block 151. The core nodes 301 are configured to transmit the Merkle proof to the requesting node 302, 303.

Additionally or alternatively, the second nodes 302 and/or the third nodes 303 may be configured to transmit a request to a core node 301 for a block header of a given block 151. Amongst other data, the block header comprises the Merkle root of the transactions mined into that block 151. The core nodes 301 are configured to transmit the Merkle proof to the requesting node 302, 303.

In some embodiments, some or all of the core nodes 301 may be configured to transmit a set of transactions to some or all of the second node(s) 302 and/or some or all of the outer node(s) that are connected to the core node 301. The transactions in the set may share a common attribute. For instance, a core node 301 may transmit all transactions that include a specific protocol flag. The flag may be included in an output of the transactions, e.g. in an unspendable output. As another example, the transactions may comprise a specific (and same) blockchain address, e.g. they may be payable to the same blockchain address. An outer node 303 may have an agreement with the core node 301 that the core node 301 will send any transactions payable to an address associated with the outer node 303. As yet another example, the transactions may comprise a secondary consensus ruleset. That is, the transaction may include, in an output, more than one control branch, each control branch being specific to a respective consensus ruleset. The output may comprise a first control branch specific to a first ruleset and a second control branch specific to a second ruleset (the two control branches may be included in an if-else condition) If the node 302, 303 is configured to implement the second ruleset, the core node 301 may transmit the transaction to the node 302, 303. If the node 302, 303 is neither configured to implement the first ruleset nor the second ruleset, the core node does not transmit the transaction to the node 302, 303.

A core node 301 that is a mining node 104M may include an identifier (e.g. a “Miner ID”) specific to that mining node 104M in a generation transaction (also referred to as a “coinbase” transaction) mined into a block 151 by that mining node 104M. Other nodes of the BLN 300 may use the identifier to identify that mining node 104M on the network.

Another way of identifying nodes 301, 302, 303 of the LN 300 is by way of digital certificates. Some or all of the nodes 301, 302, 303 may be associated with a digital certificate. The digital certificate includes, and attests to, an identifier of a respective node, e.g. a public key associated with that node, a network address (e.g. an IP address) of the node, etc. A node of the LN 300 may use the digital certificate of a different node to connect to that node. For example, an outer node 303 may obtain a digital certificate from a second node 302 and use the identifying information of the second node included in the digital certificate to connect to the second node 302.

Nodes of a given layer may issue digital certificates to nodes of a next layer in the ordered set of layers, i.e. core nodes 301 may issue digital certificate to second nodes 302, second nodes 302 may issue digital certificates to outer nodes 303 of a first outer layer, and so on. In some examples, nodes of a given layer may issue digital certificates to nodes of the same layer, e.g. a second node 302 may issue a respective digital certificate to one or more other second nodes 302.

Connection Protocol

As set out above, each node connecting to the layered network 300 may connect according to a connection protocol. That is, the connecting node must obey the rules of the connection protocol. The connecting node may only form connections that are allowed by the connection protocol. No other connections may be formed. In examples, the connecting node may be a core node 301, a second node 302 or an outer node 303. In some examples, each node of the LN 300 must obey the connection protocol. In other examples, only nodes that are connecting to the LN 300 for the first time, or are re-joining the LN 300, must obey the connection protocol. FIGS. 3 to 6 illustrate example LNs 300, 400, 500, 600 that are established according to the connection protocol.

Note that, physically speaking, each of the nodes of the LN 300 may in some examples be connected or capable of connecting to one another at some other level, e.g. via the internet. The connection protocol imposes restrictions on what connections can be formed at the level of the overlay network, i.e. at the level of the layered network, some connections do not exist or are not allowed. Each connecting node of the LN 300 is configured to operate in accordance with an overlay-level protocol (which comprises the connection protocol) of the LN 300 which determines what connections the nodes can and can't form at the overlay-level. In other words a connection is an allowed communication channel which two nodes are configured to be allowed to form by their protocol. If a node has a connection with another node, then it can commutate with that node without hopping via another node of the layered network, but if it does not then it cannot and may only communicate by hopping via one or more other nodes that do have connections between them.

The connection protocol requires that the connecting node connects to at least one node of a preceding (more inner) layer and to at least one core node, with the exception that a core node may, in some examples, be the innermost layer and so cannot connect to a preceding layer. In examples where the connecting node is a second node, these two requirements are equivalent. If the connecting node is an outer node of a first outer layer, the connecting node connects to at least a second node 302 and a core node 301.

The connection protocol may require that the connecting node connects to more than one core node. The connection protocol may further require that the connection node connects to more than one but not all of the core nodes, e.g. all but one core node. The connecting node may be a second node that must connect to two or more core nodes. That is, some or all of the second nodes must connect to two or more core nodes (and in some examples, not all of the core nodes).

The connection protocol may require that the connecting node connects to one or more second nodes. If the connecting node is a second node, this means the connecting (second) node must connect to one or more different second nodes. If the connecting node is an outer node, the connecting (outer) node must connect to one or more second nodes. The connecting outer node may be an outer node of the first outer layer, or an outer node of a second layer, and so on.

The connection protocol may require that an outer node that is connected to a node of a preceding layer, must connect to some or all of the core node(s) that the node of the preceding layer is connected to (referred to above as “core ancestors”). For example, an outer node may be connected to a second node. In that case, the outer node must also connect to the core node(s) that the second node is connected to. If the outer node is connected to more than one second node, the connection protocol may require that the outer node must connect to the core node(s) that each of the second nodes are connected to. As another example, an outer node of a second outer layer may be connected to an outer node of a first outer layer. In that example, the connection protocol requires that the outer node of the second outer layer must connect to the core node(s) that the outer node of the first outer layer is connected to.

The connection protocol may require that an outer node connects to one or more (e.g. two) outer nodes of the same outer layer. The connection protocol may require that each outer node connects to one or more outer nodes of the same layer. Alternatively, some outer layers may include outer nodes that form one or more same layer connections, and some outer layers may include outer nodes that do not form one or more same layer connections. The connection protocol may require that each outer node of the same outer layer must connect to the same number of different outer nodes of that layer. For example, each outer node of the first outer layer may be required to connect to two outer nodes. Each outer node of the second pouter layer may be required to connect to three outer nodes. That is, the number of outer nodes of the same layer that an outer node is connected to may vary between outer layers.

In some embodiments, an outer node of an i^(th) outer layer (e.g. a third outer layer) may be connected to an outer node of a preceding (i−1)^(th)layer (e.g. a second outer layer). The connection protocol may require that an outer node (e.g. all outer nodes) of a successive (i+1)^(th) outer layer must connect to each node of the (i−1)^(th)layer that the outer node of the i^(th) outer layer is connected to. For instance the outer node 305 of the fifth layer in the LN 500 of FIG. 5 is connected to the outer node 304 of the fourth layer and to the outer node 303 of the third layer. In some examples, the connection protocol may require that the outer node of the (i+1)^(th) must connect to each outer node of each preceding layer that the outer node of the i^(th) outer layer is connected to.

In embodiments where some or all of the nodes of the LN 300 are associated with digital certificates, the connection protocol may require that the connecting node must only connect to nodes that are associated with nodes that are associated with a respective digital certificate. In some embodiments, the connection protocol may require that the connecting node (e.g. an outer node) must only connect to a respective node (e.g. a second node) if the digital certificate associated with the respective node has been issued by a node (e.g. a core node) of a layer preceding the respective node, or in some examples, a node (e.g. a different second node) of the same layer of the respective node.

In some embodiments, the connection protocol may require that the connecting node can only connect to nodes that have issued the connection node with a digital certificate. That is, connecting to a node comprises receiving a digital certificate from that node.

The connection protocol enables the construction of a BLN. Like a Mandala network, a BLN is built up in layers. Unlike a Mandala network, the first layer may form an incomplete graph (e.g. a near-complete graph). Other differences between a BLN and a Mandala network are that, in a BLN, nodes in each successive layer may have different degrees, nodes may be connected to more than one node in the central layer, and/or the degree of nodes may differ between layers.

Preferably, for all nodes outside the central core:

-   -   (i) Each node is connected to m out of n₁ nodes in the central         core.     -   (ii) Each node is connected to a node in every layer, where g is         the total number of layers.     -   (iii) Each node is a member of exactly one community. There are         at most n₂ communities, where n₂ is the number of nodes of the         second layer.     -   (iv) Each node is connected to every other node by at most 3         hops. This is referred to as the diameter of the graph.

In a BLN, a “community” is defined as the set of nodes that share exactly the same set of core ancestors. FIG. 6 shows a BLN with network n₁=6, m=3 and g=4, with the nodes of two distinct communities drawn: a black node community and a white node community. The white node community comprises nodes which are all connected to three nodes on the LHS of the central core, while the black node community comprises nodes which are all connected to the three nodes on the RHS of the central core.

A characteristic of Mandala networks is that all nodes outside of the core layer (i=1) are connected to exactly one core ancestor (i.e. c_(i)=1 everywhere). This heavily contributes to the emergent properties of Mandala networks:

-   -   Having a mean shortest path length that asymptotes to a constant         as the network size (N=Σ_(i) n_(i)) increases.     -   Becoming highly sparse as the network size (N=Σ_(i)n_(i))         increases.     -   Robust against random node failures.

A characteristic of a BLN is that all non-core nodes connect to at least one ancestor. However, the BLN definition accommodates non-core nodes having up to m connections to core ancestors (i.e. 1≤c_(i)≤m everywhere). The reason for the generalisation from c_(i)=1 to 1≤c_(i)≤m throughout a BLN can be understood as an artefact of the blockchain protocol. The protocol that defines a blockchain system relies on a probabilistic security model. In essence, this means that any participant (node) in a BLN with a vested interest in an event being recorded on the blockchain 150 must take into account the probabilistic security model by connecting to a minimum fraction f of network hashing power, where 100% of total hashing power is distributed amongst the nodes in the core layer of the BLN. Assuming that the core layer exhibits a uniform equilibrium distribution of hash power amongst its n₁ core nodes, then the minimum fraction of nodes is:

f=m/n ₁

The blockchain protocol indicates that the lower bound for the minimum fraction is f=0.51, but the network participants of a BLN at scale may demand a higher fraction (e.g. f=0.67) than this for increased resilience (e.g. to double-spending). A BLN may be characterised by the choice of the parameter m, as this dictates the probabilistic security of operations for participants within the BLN, which will depend on the particular use case of needs of the BLN in question.

Nodes in the second layer L₂, being closest to the core, are most strongly dependent on the probabilistic security model of the blockchain protocol, and this dependency may decrease in layers approaching L_(g). The connection protocol may require nodes in L₂ to connect to exactly c₂=m core ancestors, while nodes in all successive layers i>2 may connect to anywhere in the range 1<<c_(i)≤m of core ancestors. In some examples, nodes is all successive layers must connect to m core ancestors.

Nodes outside the central core of a BLN may have an ‘SPV-like’ connection to the core. This means that they can do the following.

-   -   a) Send a transaction to a core node     -   b) Ask a core node if a transaction has been accepted in its         mempool/candidate block     -   c) Ask for the Merkle proof of a transaction that has been mined         in a block     -   d) Ask for an up-to-date list of block headers

These simple, targeted requests are designed to put as little burden on the core nodes 301 as possible whilst allowing for the widest possible range of scalable solutions to be built on top using a BLN. Many use-cases will require no more that the type of connection described above. In some examples, the second nodes 302 and/or outer nodes 303 are configured such that they can only perform actions a) to d) above. However, other solutions, typically enterprise level, may require the core to actively serve them more data, such as transactions that satisfy specific criteria. Therefore actions a) to d) are a minimum requirement for a BLN but additional data transfer between those nodes and the core is also possible in some examples.

For nodes operating smart contracts, some may only need SPV-like actions a) to d), whilst others may require agreements put it place to receive more data from core nodes.

In some BLNs, users may operate nodes of layer 3 or higher, and a smart contract may be operated by nodes of layer 2 or higher. Users cannot practically ‘listen’ to the blockchain for a transaction with a particular output address on a continual basis as to do so would require constant monitoring of the blockchain 150 for transactions including the particular address. Given the number of transactions that can be transmitted to the blockchain per period of time is continuing to increase, such constant monitoring is not practical for an end user. Although it is common amongst the wallet architectural of some blockchains to constantly monitor the blockchain, it is not a scalable solution given that both the number of transactions submitted to the blockchain per period of time, and the number of users of the blockchain, are expected to increase dramatically in the future. Consider the following example: Alice would like to pay Bob. She creates a transaction for the desired amount with an output address that she knows belongs to Bob. Alice then submits this transaction to the mining network, and not directly to Bob. In order for Bob to know that the transaction has been accepted he must ‘listen’ to the blockchain to see if and when a transaction with his output address has appeared on the network. He must ask a mining node to do this on his behalf. This means that a mining node has to keep a record of Bob's address and check whether every transaction it receives matches this address. Note that there is no economic incentive for a miner to do this. Assuming that a miner must process a million transactions per second and must check whether they match a million addresses shows that this quickly becomes unrealistic.

Instead, in a BLN, Alice may be directly connected to Bob and can send him the transaction directly. Bob can then send the transaction to miners in the core and at the same time ask if they accept the transaction as valid. Miners are incentivised to accept the transaction as it contains their fee, and they are incentivised to confirm whether they have accepted the transaction so that they lower the risk of constructing a block that will be orphaned. In order to make the system even more secure, Alice may send Bob the Merkle proofs of the inputs to her transactions. Bob may check these Merkle proofs as he has a copy of the block headers. This ensures Bob that Alice's inputs were part of the blockchain 150 at one point, and if she has spent them already then Bob will have proof of the double spend as he has received signatures from Alice in the transaction that she has given him. Note that Bob may be a smart contract (second node) and Alice may be a user (outer node) who would like to interact with that smart contract. If the smart contract is ‘light’ in the sense that the smart contract operator has not made any specific agreement with a mining node to facilitate the processing of the smart contract, then it too cannot rely on listening to the blockchain 150 in order to receive a transaction that triggers a change in state. Alice must send such a transaction directly to the smart contract.

A service provider may operate a node in layer 2 or higher. The case of a service provider is different from that of a user or lightweight smart contract. A service provider may have a commercial agreement with a core mining node, or collection of core nodes, who then propagate a certain subset of transactions to the service provider nodes. Such transactions should be easily identifiable and satisfy specific criteria, for example:

-   -   OP_RETURN data with a specific protocol flag. For example, the         Meta net protocol, the Tokenized protocol, or a digital         certificate protocol.     -   Output addresses matching a small, specific set. For example,         enterprise-level smart contracts or address         whitelists/blacklists.     -   A secondary consensus ruleset indicated by an OP_VER control         branch.

In addition, transactions sent to the core that follow these rules, or are in other ways identified as part of the community engaged in the service-level agreement, may have lower (or even zero) transaction fees. The shortfall may be made up by a higher transaction volume or by revenue in fiat from the service-level agreement.

All nodes of the BLN 300 may be associated with a semi-permanent public key associated with their identity. This public key can allow for secure communication and provide a link to public keys used in blockchain transactions, either through a deterministic derivation of the identity key, or by signing or encrypting the transaction keys using the identity key.

Two ways of identifying mining core nodes are:

-   -   1) Miner ID. Miners may elect to identify themselves by adding         their identity key to the input of the coinbase transaction in         each block that they mine.     -   2) Network analysis. Some miners choose to remain anonymous.         However, it is still possible to identify which nodes are         constructing blocks by analysis of the network, for example by         looking at where the new blocks originate from.

It is important that nodes a BLN are able to identify both types of miners so that they can poll as many miners as possible as to whether their transactions have been accepted. Core nodes that have a Miner ID are able to issue digital certificates to layer 2 nodes. This may be because they have a service level agreement with these nodes, or it may be because these nodes have requested a certificate for a fee. In this sense core nodes can act as a Certificate Authority (CA).

With or without a certificate from a core node, a layer 2 node may seek an external CA to issue them a digital certificate. Therefore, each layer 2 node may have at least one digital certificate attesting to their identity. They may issue certificates to other nodes in layer 2 thereby creating a web of trust between them. Nodes in layer 2 may issue certificates to nodes in layer 3, and nodes in layer 3 may issue certificates to nodes in layer 4, and so on, creating a hierarchy of certificates referred to as a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

In fact, such a PKI can be used not just for the identification of nodes in a BLN, but ensuring that the correct BLN structure is adhered to. For example, if a layer 3 node issues certificates to too many layer 4 nodes, or does not ensure that they have the appropriate connections to others nodes in the system, then the certificate of the layer 3 node may be revoked. These certificates themselves may be stored on the blockchain 150. This makes the PKI transparent and easily auditable.

Adaptive Connections

Embodiments of the present invention may also provide for a method of intentionally dropping (or disabling) connections of the layered network based on properties (conditions) of the layered network. That is, in these embodiments, a node of the LN 300 may be configured to adapt its connections to other nodes in response to certain unfavourable or undesirable network conditions.

An adapting node (i.e. the node that adapts the connection(s)) may be a core node 301, a second node 302 or an outer node 303. In some examples, each node of the LN 300 may be configured to adapt its connections with other nodes based on the network properties. The adapting node may be an SPV-like node, as discussed above.

In the context of LN 300, disabling a connection with a node means preventing any data from being transmitted over the connection to that node, and not necessarily physically terminating a connection. In other words, as set out above, a connection between two nodes 301, 302, 303 of the layered network 300 means those nodes can communicate directly, which in this context means without having to perform a hop via another node 301, 302, 303 of the layered network 300. In the context of an overlay network such as the layered network, a “connection” means a connection (i.e. edge) at the level of the layered network 300 (i.e. the level of the overlay network protocol of the layered network). Therefore disabling a connection means that the connection between two nodes 301, 302, 303 of the layered network 300 means that those nodes can no longer communicate directly.

The adapting node may be connected to one or more core nodes 301. For instance, the adapting node may be a core node 301 that is connected to other core nodes 301. In other examples, the adapting node may be a second node 302 or outer node 303 that is connected to one or more of the core nodes 301. In these examples, the adapting node may disable, in response to the network properties, one or more but not all of the connections between the adapting node and the core node(s) 301 connected to the adapting node.

The adapting node may be connected to one or more second nodes 302. For instance, the adapting node may be a core node 301 that is connected to the second node(s) 302. In other examples, the adapting node may be a second node 302 connected to other second nodes, or the adapting node may be an outer node 303 (e.g. in either the first outer layer, or the second outer layer, and so on) that is connected to one or more second nodes 302. In these examples, the adapting node may disable, in response to the network properties, one, some or all of the connections between the adapting node and the second node(s) 302 connected to the adapting node.

The adapting node may be connected to one or more outer nodes 303, e.g. in the same outer layer or different outer layers. For instance, the adapting node may be a core node 301 that is connected to the outer node(s) 303 via core ancestor connections. In other examples, the adapting node may be a second node 302 connected to the outer node(s), or the adapting node may be an outer node 303 that is connected to one or more outer nodes 303 of the same outer layer, and/or across different outer layers. In these examples, the adapting node may disable, in response to the network properties, one, some or all of the connections between the adapting node and the outer node(s) 303 connected to the adapting node.

In some embodiments, the one or more network properties, based upon which the adaptation is performed, may comprise a load on the layered network. The adapting node may disable one or more connections in response to detecting a load balancing issue (e.g. too much traffic across one or more connections of the layered network 300). The load balancing issue may be a network-wide issue, i.e. a load across the network as a whole has surpassed a threshold amount. In that situation, the adapting node may select which connections to disable in order to bring the load under an allowable threshold. In other examples, the adapting node may receive instructions from one of the nodes connected to the adapting node, wherein the instructions instruct the adapting node to drop certain connections. For instance, a core node 301 may instruct the adapting node (e.g. an outer node) to drop the connection between the core node 301 and the adapting node.

The load balancing issue may be a load between the adapting node and a particular node connected to the adapting node. For example, the adapting node may be a core node 301 experiencing an increased load between a second node 302 or outer node 303. The adapting node may disable the connection having the increased load, e.g. to bring the load within an allowable threshold amount. Alternatively, the adapting node may be a node connected to a core node 301, and the adapting node may disable that connection, e.g. in response to an instruction from the core node 301 to drop the connection.

The load balancing issue may be a load across the core nodes 301 of the core layer being above an allowable threshold. If the adapting node is a core node 301, the core node 301 may drop one or more of its connections, e.g. to other core nodes 301, and/or to one or more second nodes 302, and/or to one or more outer nodes 303. If the adapting node is a second node 302 or outer node 303, the second node 302 or outer node 303 may drop one or more of its core connections.

The detecting of the load balancing issue may comprise detecting that a load on a connection(s) between the adapting node and one or more other nodes in the layered network exceeds a threshold. Such a load may be measured for example in terms of bandwidth, error rate, packet loss rate, delay, jitter, or a combined metric combing in one or more such measures. Alternatively or additionally, the detecting of the load balancing issue may comprise detecting that a processing load on the adapting node exceeds a threshold. This could be measure for example in terms of a consumed processing resource of the adapting node, available processing resource of the adapting node.

In embodiments the detecting of the load balancing issue may comprise detecting that a number of connections between the adapting node and one or more other nodes (e.g. the core nodes 301) of the network exceed a threshold number of connections, e.g. a maximum number of total connections to the adapting node (e.g. core node). For example, the adapting node could adapt within a minimum or maximum number of connections allowed by the connection protocol defined above.

For instance, the adapting node may be a core node 301 that is connected to too many node. The threshold may a threshold for connections between the adapting node and nodes of a particular layer. For instance, the adapting node may only be allowed to form (and maintain) a certain amount of core connections, or connections to second nodes 302, or connections to outer nodes 303 (e.g. of a particular layer or in total across the outer layers). The adapting node may drop one or more of its connections to other nodes, and/or instruct one or more of its connected nodes to drop their connections to the adapting node. The number of dropped connections may be equal to or greater than the number of connections above the threshold number of allowable connections.

In some embodiments, the network properties may comprise a privacy issue. That is, the adapting node may receive an indication of (or otherwise obtain information pertaining to) a breach in privacy of the network. The privacy issue may be that a node of the network has been hacked or become faulty. Alternatively, the privacy issue may be that identifying information (e.g. of the adapting node or other nodes of the LN 300) has been compromised (e.g. stolen or leaked). The adapting node may drop connections with nodes that have had their identifying information compromised. The identifying information may comprise private and/or public keys associated with a given node of the LN 300.

The adapting node may receive an indication of the network properties from one or more nodes of the LN 300 that the adapting node is connected to. The indication may also comprise an instruction to drop a connection, e.g. with the node that sends the indication to the adapting node. In some examples, only the core nodes 301 are configured to issue the indications and/or instructions. In other examples, the second nodes 302 and/or outer nodes 303 may additionally or alternatively be configured to issue the indications and/or instructions. The adapting node may drop connections with nodes that send the indication to the adapting node.

In some embodiments, disabling a connection with a respective node may comprise revoking a respective digital certificate issued by the adapting node to the respective node. In these examples, a node must have a valid digital certificate in order to connect with another node. The adapting node may be a core node 301 responsible for issuing digital certificates to second nodes 302 and/or outer nodes 303. The adapting node may revoke the digital certificate of say, an outer node 303, in order to disable the connection to that node. As another example, a second node 302 may be responsible for issuing digital certificates to the outer node 303. The adapting node, still being a core node 301, may instruct the second node 302 to revoke the digital certificate of the outer node 303, thus disabling the connection between the adapting node and the outer node 303.

The adapting node may be a second node 302 or outer node 303 that requires knowledge of the state of the blockchain 150, e.g. whether a transaction has been accepted in the pool 154 of a mining node 104M, whether a transaction has been recorded in a block 151 of the blockchain 150, etc. The adapting node may transmit a request for information to one or more core nodes 301 being blockchain nodes 104 (e.g. a single core node connected to the adapting node), and to one or more second nodes 302 (e.g. a single second node connected to the adapting node). After receiving information from the one or more core nodes 301, the adapting node may check for consistency between the different sets of received information. If the received information is consistent, then adapting node can be confident that the core node(s) and the second node(s) have returned correct information. This is particularly beneficial if the adapting node is connected to mining nodes representing less than 51% of the hashing power of the blockchain network 106, e.g. only a single mining node 104M.

The adapting node may request the same information from the core node(s) 301 and the second node(s) 302. Alternatively, the adapting node may request different but related information from the different nodes 301, 302. For example, the adapting node may request a block header or Merkle root from the core node(s), whilst requesting a transaction or Merkle proof from the second node(s).

In some embodiments, the adapting node may be configured to re-connect (i.e. re-enable) one or more of the disabled connections. For instance, the adapting node may determine (e.g. receive information from node of the LN 300) that the network properties have returned to normal conditions, e.g. there is no longer a load balancing issue.

CONCLUSION

It will be appreciated that the above embodiments have been described by way of example only. More generally, there may be provided a method, apparatus or program in accordance with any one or more of the following Statements.

Statement 1. A computer-implemented method for connecting to a layered network, wherein the layered network comprises a plurality of nodes arranged in an ordered set of layers, the ordered set of layers comprising, in order, a core layer comprising a set of core nodes, a second layer comprising a set of second nodes, and one or more outer layers each comprising a respective set of outer nodes, wherein each core node is connected to at least one other core node; and wherein the method is performed by a connecting node and comprises connecting to the network according to a connection protocol, wherein the connection protocol requires that: each node must connect to at least one node of a preceding layer; and each outer node must also connect to at least one core node.

The layers are ordered from an innermost layer (e.g. the core layer) to an outermost outer layer (e.g. one of the outer layers).

Statement 2. The method of statement 1, wherein one, some or all of the core nodes are connected to more than one other core node.

Statement 3. The method of statement 2, wherein one, some or all of the core nodes are connected to more than one but not all other core node.

Statement 4. The method of any of statements 1 to 3, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or each of the second nodes must connect to more than one core node.

Statement 5. The method of statement 4, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the second nodes must connect to more than one but not all core nodes.

Statement 6. The method any preceding statement, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the second nodes must connect to at least one other second node.

Statement 7. The method of statement 6, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the second nodes must connect to more than one other second node.

Statement 8. The method of any preceding statement, wherein the connection protocol requires that each outer node of a given outer layer that is connected to a respective node of a preceding layer must connect to at least one of the core nodes to which that respective node of the preceding layer is connected.

Statement 9. The method of statement 8, wherein the connection protocol requires that each outer node of a given outer layer that is connected to the respective node of the preceding layer must connect to all of the core nodes to which that respective node of the preceding layer is connected.

Statement 10. The method of any preceding statement, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the outer layers must comprise at least one outer node that is connected to at least one other outer node of the same outer layer.

Statement 11. The method of statement 10, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the outer layers must comprise at least one outer node that is connected to more than one other outer node of the same outer layer.

Statement 12. The method of statement 10 or statement 11, wherein the connection protocol requires that each outer node of a given outer layer is connected to the same number of other outer nodes of that outer layer.

Statement 13. The method of statement 10 or statement 11, wherein the connection protocol requires that at least one outer node of a given outer layer is connected to a different number of other outer nodes of that outer layer.

Statement 14. The method of any preceding statement, wherein the number of nodes in each layer increases from the core layer to an outermost one of the outer layers.

Statement 15. The method of any preceding statement, wherein the one or more outer layers comprises a plurality of outer layers, each outer node in a given outer layer being connected to a respective one or more outer nodes of a first preceding layer inwards of the given outer layer, each of the one or more outer nodes of the first preceding layer being connected to a respective one or more outer nodes in a second preceding layer inwards of the first preceding layer, and wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the outer nodes in the given outer layer must connect to at least one of the respective one or more outer nodes of the second preceding layer to which the respective one or more outer nodes of the first preceding layer is connected.

Statement 16. The method of statement 15, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the outer nodes in the given outer layer must connect to each of the respective one or more outer nodes of the second preceding layer to which the respective one or more outer nodes of the first preceding layer is connected.

Statement 17. The method of statement 15 or statement 16, wherein the connection protocol requires that each respective outer node in a given outer layer must connect to at least one node in each preceding layer of the network.

Statement 18. The method of any preceding statement, wherein the core nodes comprise nodes of a blockchain network.

The layered network includes the blockchain network, or at least part of it, at the core layer. Each of the second nodes and the outer nodes provides a service layered around the blockchain network, or at least around part of it.

Statement 19. The method of statement 18, wherein each core node is a respective blockchain node of the blockchain network.

Statement 20. The method of statement 19, wherein each core node is at least one of: a respective mining node, a respective storage node, and a respective forwarding node of the blockchain network.

In embodiments each core node is a mining node and/or storage node (e.g. full-copy node).

Statement 21. The method of any preceding statement, wherein one, some or all of the outer nodes of an outermost outer layer comprise a respective end-user device.

Statement 22. The method of any preceding statement, wherein the connecting node is either: one of the core nodes, one of the second nodes, or one of the outer nodes.

Statement 23. The method of any preceding statement, wherein each respective second node and/or outer node is configured to transmit a blockchain transaction to one, some or all of the core nodes to which the respective second node is connected.

Statement 24. The method of statement 10 or any statement dependent thereon, wherein each respective outer node is configured to transmit a blockchain transaction to one, some or all of the other outer nodes in the same layer to which the respective outer node is connected.

Statement 25. The method of statement 19 or any statement dependent thereon, wherein each respective second node and/or outer node is configured to request confirmation, from one, some or all of the core nodes to which the respective second node and/or outer node is connected, that a blockchain transaction has been accepted in a pool of transactions that have been validated according to a set of consensus rules of the blockchain network.

Statement 26. The method of statement 19 or any statement dependent thereon, wherein each respective second node and/or outer node is configured to request, from one, some or all of the core nodes to which the respective second node and/or outer node is connected, a Merkle proof of a transaction that has been mined in a block of the blockchain.

Statement 27. The method of statement 19 or any statement dependent thereon, wherein each block of the blockchain comprises a block header, and wherein each respective second node and/or outer node is configured to request one or more block headers from one, some or all of the core nodes to which the respective second node and/or outer node is connected.

Statement 28. The method of any preceding statement, wherein one, some or all of the second nodes operate a respective smart contract service, wherein the smart contract service is configured to perform a predefined operation in response to, and based on, a blockchain transaction transmitted to the smart contract service by one of the outer nodes.

Statement 29. The method of any preceding statement, wherein one, some or all of the second nodes operate a distributed database, wherein each second node that operates the distributed database are configured to store data received from an outer node connected to that second node.

Statement 30. The method of statement 19 or any statement dependent thereon, wherein one, some or all of the second nodes and/or outer nodes are configured to identify a respective mining node of the core layer based on a respective mining identifier included in a coinbase transaction of a block mined by that respective mining node.

Statement 31. The method of any preceding statement, wherein one, some or all of the nodes of the layered network are associated with a respective digital certificate.

Statement 32. The method of statement 31, wherein one, some or all of the nodes of the network are configured to identify other nodes of the network based on the respective digital certificate associated with that node.

Statement 33. The method of statement 31 or statement 32, wherein the connection protocol requires that a given node must only connect to nodes that are associated with a respective digital certificate.

Statement 34. The method of any preceding statement, wherein one, some or all of the core nodes are configured to issue a respective digital certificate to the one or more respective second nodes that are connected to the respective core node.

Statement 35. The method of any preceding statement, wherein one, some or all of the second nodes are configured to issue a respective digital certificate to the one or more respective outer nodes of the first outer layer that are connected to the respective second node.

Statement 36. The method of statement 35, wherein one, some or all of the outer nodes of the first outer layer are configured to issue a respective digital certificate to the one or more respective outer nodes of the second outer layer that are connected to the respective outer node of the first outer layer.

Statement 37. The method of any of statements 34 to 36, wherein the connection protocol requires that a respective node can only connect to a node in a preceding layer that has issued the respective node with a digital certificate.

Statement 38. The method of statement 19 or any claim dependent thereon, wherein one, some or all of the core nodes are configured to transmit a set of transactions to at least one of the second nodes to which that core node is connected, wherein the set of transactions include at least one of: a set of transactions that each comprise a specific protocol flag, a set of transactions that each comprise a specific blockchain address, and/or a set of transactions that each comprise a respective secondary consensus ruleset indicated by a respective control branch of a transaction output.

Statement 39. The method of statement 2, wherein one, some or all of the core nodes are connected to each of the other core nodes.

Statement 40. Computer equipment comprising: memory comprising one or more memory units, and processing apparatus comprising one or more processing units, and a network interface comprising one or more network interface units; wherein the memory stores code arranged to run on the processing apparatus, the code being configured so as when run on the processing apparatus to operate the computer equipment by performing the method of any preceding statement.

Statement 41. A computer program embodied on computer readable storage and configured so as when run on one or more processors to perform the method of any of statements 1 to 39.

Other variants or use cases of the disclosed techniques may become apparent to the person skilled in the art once given the disclosure herein. The scope of the disclosure is not limited by the described embodiments but only by the accompanying claims. 

1. A computer-implemented method for connecting to a layered network, wherein the layered network comprises a plurality of nodes arranged in an ordered set of layers, the ordered set of layers comprising, in order, a core layer comprising a set of core nodes, a second layer comprising a set of second nodes, and one or more outer layers each comprising a respective set of outer nodes, wherein each core node is connected to at least one other core node; and wherein the method is performed by a connecting node and comprises connecting to the network according to a connection protocol, wherein the connection protocol requires that: each node must connect to at least one node of a preceding layer; and each outer node must also connect to at least one core node.
 2. (canceled)
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein one, some or all of the core nodes are connected to more than one but not all other core nodes.
 4. (canceled)
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the second nodes must connect to more than one but not all core nodes.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the second nodes must connect to at least one other second node.
 7. (canceled)
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection protocol requires that each outer node of a given outer layer that is connected to a respective node of a preceding layer must connect to at least one of the core nodes to which that respective node of the preceding layer is connected.
 9. (canceled)
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the outer layers must comprise at least one outer node that is connected to at least one other outer node of the same outer layer. 11-14. (canceled)
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more outer layers comprises a plurality of outer layers, each outer node in a given outer layer being connected to a respective one or more outer nodes of a first preceding layer inwards of the given outer layer, each of the one or more outer nodes of the first preceding layer being connected to a respective one or more outer nodes in a second preceding layer inwards of the first preceding layer, and wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the outer nodes in the given outer layer must connect to at least one of the respective one or more outer nodes of the second preceding layer to which the respective one or more outer nodes of the first preceding layer is connected.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the connection protocol requires that one, some or all of the outer nodes in the given outer layer must connect to each of the respective one or more outer nodes of the second preceding layer to which the respective one or more outer nodes of the first preceding layer is connected.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the connection protocol requires that each respective outer node in a given outer layer must connect to at least one node in each preceding layer of the network.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein the core nodes comprise nodes of a blockchain network.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein each core node is a respective blockchain node of the blockchain network.
 20. (canceled)
 21. The method of claim 1, wherein one, some or all of the outer nodes of an outermost outer layer comprise a respective end-user device.
 22. The method of claim 1, wherein the connecting node is either: one of the core nodes, one of the second nodes, or one of the outer nodes. 23-24. (canceled)
 25. The method of claim 19, wherein each respective second node and/or outer node is configured to request confirmation, from one, some or all of the core nodes to which the respective second node and/or outer node is connected, that a blockchain transaction has been accepted in a pool of transactions that have been validated according to a set of consensus rules of the blockchain network.
 26. The method of claim 19, wherein each respective second node and/or outer node is configured to request, from one, some or all of the core nodes to which the respective second node and/or outer node is connected, a Merkle proof of a transaction that has been mined in a block of the blockchain.
 27. The method of claim 19, wherein each block of the blockchain comprises a block header, and wherein each respective second node and/or outer node is configured to request one or more block headers from one, some or all of the core nodes to which the respective second node and/or outer node is connected.
 28. The method of claim 1, wherein one, some or all of the second nodes operate a respective smart contract service, wherein the smart contract service is configured to perform a predefined operation in response to, and based on, a blockchain transaction transmitted to the smart contract service by one of the outer nodes.
 29. The method of claim 1, wherein one, some or all of the second nodes operate a distributed database, wherein each second node that operates the distributed database are configured to store data received from an outer node connected to that second node. 30-39. (canceled)
 40. Computer equipment comprising: memory comprising one or more memory units, and processing apparatus comprising one or more processing units, and a network interface comprising one or more network interface units; wherein the memory stores code arranged to run on the processing apparatus, the code being configured so as when run on the processing apparatus, the processing apparatus operates the computer equipment to perform a method for connecting to a layered network, wherein the layered network comprises a plurality of nodes arranged in an ordered set of layers, the ordered set of layers comprising, in order, a core layer comprising a set of core nodes, a second layer comprising a set of second nodes, and one or more outer layers each comprising a respective set of outer nodes, wherein each core node is connected to at least one other core node; and wherein the method is performed by a connecting node and comprises connecting to the network according to a connection protocol, wherein the connection protocol requires that: each node must connect to at least one node of a preceding layer; and each outer node must also connect to at least one core node.
 41. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the computer program product being configured so as when run on one or more processors, the one or more processors perform a method for connecting to a layered network, wherein the layered network comprises a plurality of nodes arranged in an ordered set of layers, the ordered set of layers comprising, in order, a core layer comprising a set of core nodes, a second layer comprising a set of second nodes, and one or more outer layers each comprising a respective set of outer nodes, wherein each core node is connected to at least one other core node; and wherein the method is performed by a connecting node and comprises connecting to the network according to a connection protocol, wherein the connection protocol requires that: each node must connect to at least one node of a preceding layer; and each outer node must also connect to at least one core node. 